Author Archives: brad

DHMO Homepage: Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is perhaps the single most prevalent of all chemicals that can be dangerous to human life. Despite this truth, most people are not unduly concerned about the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Governments, civic leaders, corporations, military organizations, and citizens in every walk of life seem to either be ignorant of or shrug off the truth about Dihydrogen Monoxide as not being applicable to them. This concerns us.

This is good information here. Definitely worth reading.

It goes on: Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death.

Apparently, they’re not the only ones concerned. MSNBC reports: City officials were so concerned about the potentially dangerous properties of dihydrogen monoxide that they considered banning foam cups after they learned the chemical was used in their production.

Slashdot has some DHMO-related discussion as well.

The whole truth about DHMO can be found here.

I have grave concerns for our future. Grave concerns.

Here’s a shot of my current visitors (actual numbers of hits are blurred, because that’s none of yer stinkin beezwax).

Now, I realize that my readership is skewed heavily toward the Mac, except for Windoze heathens like Bill and Josh. I’m very curious about the 24.5% “Unknown” though. What’s up with that? Atari? Commodore? TSR-80? Apple II? I don’t know. It remains a mystery.

The 3.7% from Linux are likely from Dave’s recent misadventures with Suse. Periodically, he stubbornly refuses to believe that Linux isn’t really ready for the desktop and insists upon installing a distribution somewhere, only to become dismayed and disenchanted shortly thereafter. But I digress.

Most interesting to me are the bottom three entries. BeOS, FreeBSD, and WebTV? Are you kidding me? FreeBSD isn’t a total shock, I guess, but BeOS? Who the heck uses BeOS anymore? Didn’t they hear what happened? And yes, I fully appreciate the irony of a Mac user teasing someone who uses an operating system with a microscopic market share, so there’s no need to point it out, thank you very much. To the BeOS user: show yourself! Leave a comment! Tell us why you’re using BeOS. Seriously, I’m not teasing. I’m really curious about it.

As for WebTV, well, I have an anecdote about that. I won’t get into the whole thing now, but it ended with me turning to a co-worker and saying, “You know, I always wondered what kind of person uses WebTV. Now I know.” Dave probably remembers.

Dave Winer writes: Even though the browser has severe limits for users, and the dominant browser is owned by Microsoft, users still want software to run in the browser.

I don’t think this is necessarily true. I’m not saying Dave’s wrong, just that he’s looking at the data from the wrong viewpoint.

I think users want real, honest-to-goodness, double-click-and-they-launch applications. I don’t think users want everything to be done in the browser. The browser is clunky. Text editing is difficult. Image editing is next to impossible, at least without the abomination we call Java. Interactivity is limited, and delayed by page refreshes. Doing any real work in a browser is annoying at best.

Now, take note that I’m talking about a certain kind of user here. I’m talking about, pretty much, my mom or my wife. Not a power user, who demands that the application be web-based so that it’s accessible everywhere. And not some neophyte who doesn’t understand the difference. I’m talking about your average, run-of-the-mill, I-use-the-computer-every-day-but-I-don’t-want-to-know-how-it-works kind of user.

But Dave’s not the first person to make this observation. It’s an opinion that’s becoming prevalent, and many people accept it as fact. So where does it come from? Easy: IT wants everything to be done in the browser. That way, there’s less to be deployed to each workstation, and each upgrade of an application doesn’t mean a visit to every single computer in the business/enterprise/district/whatever. It’s not what users want, it’s what they’ve been relegated to. And I know what I’m talking about: I’m in IT. It’s a royal pain to deploy a real, honest-to-goodness, double-click-and-they-launch application. Even with the best management software out there, it’s a drain on time and resources that can be spent on other problems.

This is a big reason why tangelo will be a desktop application instead of a web-based application. I think it’s what people really want. They just might not know it yet.

This week’s Friday 5:

1. What was the last song you heard?
“The Undiscovered” by Rock’N’Roll Worship Circus

2. What were the last two movies you saw?
Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?
Almost Famous, Extended Cut

3. What were the last three things you purchased?
Slim Jim
Diet Pepsi (please play again)
Small jar of Kraft mayo

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?
Work on tangelo
Do some recording
Have dinner with Brett
Work on the basement

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
Jen
Gracie
Mary Anne
Becky
Jack (but he’s a dog)

That’s so… whoa.

I go into the iTunes Music Store and search for Bob Dylan. I find a song called “Bob Dylan” by a band named Mack, the Coffee Man.

Holy crap! We opened for them at The Mill in Lititz in 1997!

Whoa.

prostitute amphioxis emblazon areawide expire capillary butyl daphne oboist hobart pollen volvo check guaranteeing turnery bandgap cadmium bland csnet marketwise exert emblem

symposium hydrocarbon chablis centrifugate barbara paleolithic frothy we decoy inexperience dunbar aristocrat counterexample noticeable mien fidelity rook objet baron merrymake chicory convolve clayton valiant arsenal semaphore

I’m so sick and tired of receiving email with random words in it! Above is a sample that I just got.

Do people still reply to this stuff? They must, I suppose, or it would cease to be profitable for the spammers.

All it does for me is piss me off. Want to guarantee that I will never, ever do business with you? Send me piece of spam with enough random words that it bypasses the filters I have in place. Let’s see, now you’ve spammed me. And you made it past the junk filter by lying. Oh, yeah, sign me up for your great products so I can “Take A Step Into The Future And Join The Millions Of People Already Using Rx Meds Online.” That’s exactly what I need. Thanks.

They are creatures of pure malevolence.

Like cats.

The dangers of code reuse illustrated, from Intelligent Enterprise: Eager to demonstrate their flying skills for some visiting American pilots, the hotshot Aussies ‘buzzed’ the virtual kangaroos in low flight during a simulation. The kangaroos scattered, as predicted, and the visiting Americans nodded appreciatively … then did a double-take as the kangaroos reappeared from behind a hill and launched a barrage of Stinger missiles at the hapless helicopter.

At tonight’s lesson, I worked on “It Happens All The Time” with my guitar teacher. And it struck me how much my life has changed since writing that song.

I wrote it in 1997, during my days with Anonymous Joe. I was working at Hans Herr Elementary School as a computer aide and the recess guy (best job I ever had, by the way). I was driving my 1996 Geo Tracker (shut up, Dave) and renting a renovated firehouse. I got home every day around 3:30, while Jen didn’t get home until around six, which left me lots of time to practice the guitar and write music (I can’t write songs if anyone else is in the house; it’s a weird thing I have; I have to be able to get through the preliminary horrible versions without fear of humiliation). I would stay up late into the night, watching David Letterman, playing video games, and working on new lyrics.

These days, I’m lucky to get home by six. Jen’s already there; in fact, she’s been there all day. I live in my own home with my wife, my daughter, and my dog. I drive a Saturn VUE, which seems so much more grown-up than the Tracker. I work as a Technology Specialist at Etown, which, sorry to say, is not the best job I ever had. When I get home, instead of having time to play music, I quickly check my email for tech support requests about Frequency, then sit down to dinner with Jen and Gracie. Then, after some reading or maybe watching a Disney movie, we put Grace to bed. Then I spend an hour or so writing code instead of writing songs. I’m rarely alone in the house, so I don’t get to write much music these days (although I did have a few hours to myself on Sunday, during which I worked on a new song called “Break Me”). Plus, I can’t play too loud while Grace and Jen are sleeping. That wouldn’t be cool at all. And I’m no longer in a band.

Don’t think that I’m complaing about my life; I am not. I wouldn’t trade Gracie for the world, and while my job at Etown isn’t the greatest job I’ve ever had, it more than pays the bills, and at least I get to work with some very cool people. And I’m very fond of the VUE, mature as it may be.

But yeah, some days I miss being the guy in the band, when what I did during the day was just my day job, when Jen would get home and I’d say, “Listen to this song I just finished,” when our biggest worry was what out next gig was going to be.

One of our district office secretaries just came in and delivered a 12-pack of Diet Rite. This was for restoring one file from a backup.

The attached note said: “Thank you for SAVING MY LIFE!”

She’s a sweetie.

Reminds of my first year or two here, before my department became hopelessly swamped and overworked, back when we were often able to go the extra mile for someone. We were often rewarded with candy, donuts, or other treats.

Small wonder that I had to go on a diet shortly thereafter.

Now, this would have been worth TiVO-ing: At a recent Indiana Pacers-Washington Wizards game, a woman’s reaction to a man’s marriage proposal stuns an expectant crowd… The man appeared from the bank mascot’s costume, grabbed a microphone and then got down on one knee. As he began to speak to the woman, she paused and grabbed her face in shock. Then, as the crowd expected the man to pop question, the woman turned away from the man, and sprinted full speed across the basketball court.

Oh, man. This is one of those Do-You-Laugh-Or-Do-You-Cry moments. I can’t imagine his next proposal, likely posited to another woman, will go smoothly.

Especially if she was at the game.